Sunday, August 18, 2013

Psychotic Extraction

So we've got a Coffee + Beer event coming up at the Lab in September. I'll be brewing up a batch for the show. I'm not much of a coffee + beer aficionado so the challenge was to think of a way to avoid using coffee as an adjunct - which is the approach most people would take. Planning the flavor profile of a dark beer and using coffee in place of kilned or roasted malts is perfectly reasonable. I want to do something different, that being the use of cold extract coffee as brewing liquor. I figure 3 pounds of fine grind medium roast will produce an easy 10 gallons of coffee that I'll use to make a 5 gallon batch of Strong Ale - mid 1.070's, mostly pale malt, some caravienne/munich, a little Special B, a pinch of Brown malt, mash a little hot for residual sweetness, firm balancing Cascade bitterness, and ferment with the Chico yeast for a good attenuation. See how it goes...